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Ann P's blog

The Children's Chess Club is back! Every Wednesday (beginning June 5th) kids ages 8 and up can come to the Children’s Department and play the game of Chess! Come alone, or bring a friend, the chess boards are provided and fun is guaranteed! Call 832-559-4235 for more information about the Chess Club or any of our fabulous weekly programs!

Origami, the ancient art of paper folding comes alive in the lobby of our library all month long! Please stop by the front bookcase display area and enjoy the beautiful origami birds created by staff members and the original artwork hand-painted by Laura from our Circulation Department! For your own hands on origami experience, there is a walk up station to the right of the display complete with everything you need to create your own! Have fun folding!

Starting today and over the next few weeks, your Tomball children’s staff will be visiting elementary schools in TISD to promote the upcoming Summer Reading Program: Have Book – Will Travel! The program runs from June 3rd – August 10th. When your child arrives home and barely able to catch their breath as they shout out “the lady from the library was at my school and it was so cool”, they are right! For staff members like myself, it is always a wonderful experience to go into the schools, meet with the kids, share information about the library and programming, read a story and just have fun! There’s been no “tall tale” concocted when they say we were there, because, “yes”, we really were at your child' s school!

In just one month, the biggest event of the year for [all] libraries will begin! The 2013 Summer Reading program, “Have Book – Will Travel” begins on June 3rd throughAugust 10th! This year’s program promises to be better than ever with activities and programs to delight children of all ages! On Mondayafternoons at 3:00 pm, you’ll be entertained by magicians, jugglers, puppets, musicians and storytellers, as well as learn about dinosaurs and bugs (yes, Jungle Jim is coming!). On Wednesdayafternoons at 4:30 pm children ages 8 – 12 can play chess! Movies will be shown on Thursdaysat 3:00 pm and [free] popcorn will be served! On Monday nights at 6:00 pm and Saturdays at 1:30 pm, the Pokemon League meets. And, if all of this isn’t fun enough, we have age appropriate story times during the week and a Family story time on Tuesday nights at 6:30 pm! At the end of May, you’ll be able to pick up a children's program calendar at any reference desk in the library or you can access the calendar online. Get ready for a Summer of fun…we are!

Although we celebrate children every day throughout the year at a children's library, this week (April 14th - 19th) is "officially" designated as ”the week of the young child"! In celebration and with HCPL's continued partnership with Houston PBS, we are thrilled to present a special Curious George themed story time on Wednesday, April 17th at 10:30 am! Children in attendance will watch a fun filled DVD episode of Curious George provided by Houston PBS, listen to a story, complete an activity sheet and make a fabulous craft! This event is FREE and will meet in the Children's Activity Room!

On the Harris County website there is a fabulous link just for kids. Truth be told, parents and teachers like it too! It is aptly named “kids know it all” and it is FREE, fun and easy to use! Click on the link in this blog, or simply type in HCPL.net (or access your app) and then click on the “kids” icon. Now the fun begins! Of course, we want you to experience the fun first hand, so you will only be getting a small sampling of what’s available from this blog. On the “kids read” link, you will see the page as shown above. Here your child can click on the different links (highlighted by gold stars) to access tumblebooks, read book reviews, access book lists, search readers advisories and also write and post their very own book review! There are game links, story time databases, craft links, a "surf the net" link (google, yahoo etc…) a Houston link ('cause we live in a great city and there is always tons of fun, FREE stuff to do!), a "school stuff" link for help with all the basic subjects (math, English, science etc…) and a whole lot more! A world of knowledge and hours of fun are [literally] a click away!

We sure do! For the kids who know the type of book they like to read but don’t quite know how to find it, we introduce you to NoveList K-8 Plus. This FREE, easy to use database is accessible from www.hcpl.net (from a home or a library computer). From the library link, click the database link and scroll down to NoveList K-8 Plus. You or your child can do a basic search by typing in their age, the type of book they want to read (Classic, Horror, Science fiction, Westerns, Historical fiction, etc) and then within that genre, you can select a more specific sub-topic. For example, within the fantasies genre, you can choose, humorous, fairy, historical. At that point, numerous books that meet your criteria will display. You can also find “read-alikes” for a recent book that you just loved. Type in the author’s name or the title of the book and NovelList will display “read-alikes” to choose from. There is also a direct link to our HCPL catalog to let you know if the book is available or needs to be requested. Each book comes with a synopsis, a recommendation from other readers and other helpful information about the book. Happy book searching!

We are asked this question almost every single day. Where are the children’s movies? Children’s DVD’s and videos (yes, we still have some VHS movies in our catalog!) are shelved directly across from the Children’s Department to the right side of the Adult Reference Desk. Movies for all ages (adults, teens, children) are shelved in this location alphabetically by the first word of the movie title. We have a wonderful selection of current movies, adult classics, Disney classics, cartoons, classic and current television series, educational and historic movies. DVD’s and videos may only be checked out by a library card holder ages 18 and over. And, if you haven’t already heard the good news, starting on April 15th, the loan period for all DVD and video check outs will increase from 1 to 2 weeks!

Congratulations to the eight boys and girls (ages 5 - 12) in the Children’s Garden Club who completed the requirements for their Golden Ray Series Certification in Vegetables and Herbs. Over the past few months (beginning in the Fall of 2012) each child worked hard [both] at home and the Library completing the required activities. These included: planning a garden, growing and harvesting techniques, nutrition in the garden andhow to use vegetable and herbal products. Each child has already received or will be receiving a Golden Ray Series Certificate and a Junior Master Gardener Vegetable Pin. This certification is a portion towards their ultimate goal of certification as a Junior Master Gardener! Throughout the winter season, the children grew, nurtured and harvested English peas, carrots, radishes, herbs, kale, cabbage and other fabulous winter plants. Without a doubt, these children have proven that you can have a “green thumb" at any age!

If you were wondering why you always see children swarming around the reference desk in the Children’s department, wonder no more. We are the proud owners of 3 betta fish and 3 catfish. In no particular order we invite you to stop by, tap on the glass, wave hello, blow fish kisses etc, etc, etc, and meet Swimmy, Nemo and Oscar (the betta fish). And,Spot, Speckles and Rocky (the catfish). Who’d a thunk fish could be so much fun!

Information for Persons with Disabilities: Harris County Public Library will make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities who are interested in attending library programs. To make a request for yourself or someone you know, please notify the Branch Librarian two working days in advance of the program.